Levee breaks in Nevada, 3,500 stranded
47 minutes ago
A canal levee ruptured early Saturday after heavy rainfall, pouring more than 3 feet of near-freezing water into about 800 homes and stranding about 3,500 people in their agricultural desert town, authorities said.
A 30-foot-long section of the Truckee Canal broke around 4 a.m. in Fernley, about 33 miles east of Reno, officials said. No injuries were reported.
Truckee River water flowing into the canal was diverted upstream and water in the canal was receding, said Ernie Schank, president of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District.
The area had gotten snow plus heavy rain on Friday as a storm pummeled the West Coast, raising a threat of mud slides and flooding in California, blacking out thousands of customers and blanketing the Sierra Nevada range with deep snow.
"It was a mess up there last night," said Chuck Allen of the Nevada Department of Public Safety. "It's so cold here. The snow is about 2 inches in depth and the temperatures are right near the frigid mark both for the rescuers and rescuees."
Residents were being taken by 10 school buses to schools, and bulldozers were brought in to shore up the levee, Allen said. The nearby Fallon Naval Air Station provided three helicopters in case anyone needed rescue from a roof and local officials deployed boats, Allen said.
"Water to the edge of our driveway and rising quickly," resident Bill Sanchez told CNN. "There's some cars there, the water's up to the doors."
Repairs on the levee were started immediately, Schank told KTVN-TV in Reno.
The canal brings water from the Truckee River, starting just east of Reno and running to the farming community of Fallon, about 60 miles away.
In December 1996, flooding from a rupture of an irrigation canal that is part of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District surrounded about 60 Fernley homes with as much as 2 feet of water.
On Jan. 3, 1997, flooding from the Truckee River swamped motels, casinos and other businesses in Reno and made hundreds of homes uninhabitable.
(This version corrects the time of the breach to about 4 a.m. instead of 5 a.m.)
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